By Nate Williams

LONDON — Maria Sharapova believes that playing too many tournaments during the clay season has hindered her transition to performing on the grass after exiting Wimbledon in the first round on Tuesday.

Sharapova, who won her only Wimbledon title in 2004, wasn’t outplayed by fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko even though she lost 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

After controlling the first tie-break to lead, she surrendered a 3-1 advantage in the second set and squandered her chance to serve out the match at 5-4.

“I definitely had several chances in the match,” Sharapova said. “Although not playing my best tennis, I opened up a few doors and was a couple points away from winning this match.

“You know, sometimes you put yourself in a better or winning position, and you don’t finish through. That was the case today. She played extremely aggressive. She was there to win it, and she did.”

In fairness, Sharapova gave a good account of herself at the French Open by reaching the fourth round this year at Roland Garros, a year after she made her competitive return from a doping ban in April 2017.

However, that progress was built through going deep into the Rome and Madrid tournaments and after leaving Paris, she decided to pull out of the Birmingham grass event to allow for extra recovery time.

“I felt I made that mistake of playing far too many tournaments in consecutive weeks,” Sharapova said.

Rafael Nadal, on the other hand, made a swift and successful transition from clay to grass as he cruised to a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 first round win against Israel’s Dudi Sela.

Nadal, who was competing for the first time since claiming his 11th French Open title in June, relentlessly produced his best work in exhilarating exchanges as he sprinted to lead by a set and a break after 40 minutes.

“Good start, good result,” said a satisfied Nadal.

“Of course I did things very well, and other things that I have room to improve. I’m happy more or less with the forehand. I went to the net quite often. I served a lot of good games.”

Nadal has often struggled to get off to a solid start at Wimbledon and fell at the fourth round stage to Giles Muller last year.

“I did the same in 2017,” said Nadal, when asked why he didn’t play on grass until Wimbledon.

“I lost here in the fourth round. But I felt I was in a position to fight for important things. The most important thing is being healthy. That’s the priority always.”

But this was a more confident Nadal as he opened up a 4-1 third set cushion with a determined volley en route to closing out the match in one hour and 50 minutes.

Nadal will play Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round.

The runner-up to Nadal at the French Open, Dominic Thiem, did not progress as the Austrian seventh seed walked out of Wimbledon following his retirement in the third set against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Thiem lost two close sets before pulling out at 6-4, 7-5, 2-0.

Three-time champion Novak Djokovic eased past his first round challenge with a commanding 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 success over American Tennys Sandgren.

Garbine Muguruza opened the day’s play on Centre Court with a dominant defense of her Wimbledon title in dismissing Britian’s Naomi Broady 6-2, 7-5.

“I do feel more confident knowing that I won Wimbledon,” Murguruza said. “It’s a Grand Slam. It’s a grass court. It gives you this extra thing that not everybody can experience that.”

Broady rallied to save match point against her serve at 5-4 in the second set but, two games later, a vicious winner booked Muguruza’s place in round two with Belgium’s Alison van Uytvanck.

The British home crowd weren’t too disappointed however, as Johanna Konta made it through after dispatching Natalia Vikhlyantseva in a 7-5, 7-6 (9-7) victory.

Elsewhere in the women’s draw, eighth seeded Czech Petra Kvitova fell at the first hurdle to Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

“I just didn’t feel well, obviously,” Kvitova said. “The nerves were there again. I don’t know. I just tried to kind of fight with myself. It’s just not really working for me right now.”

And on Court One, the Wimbledon faithful had more to cheer about in the men’s draw when 21st seed Kyle Edmund succeeded in his 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 first round effort against Alex Bolt of Australia.

No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev is safely through 7-5, 6-2, 6-0 against Australia’s James Duckworth.

World No. 1 and French Open champion Simona Halep began her campaign on Centre Court with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 win over Japanese Kurumi Nara.

The 11th seeded Angelique Kerber wrote her name into the second round as the German dispatched Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-3.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Australian 15th seed Nick Kyrgios needed four sets to complete their progress.

Nishikori bested American Ryan Harrison 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, while Kyrgios conquered Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 6-3.

Fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro eased through in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, straight sets success over Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk.

Del Potro will play Feliciano Lopez next after the Spaniard downed his Argentine compatriot Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the second stage.

The 36-year-old veteran Lopez is playing in a record 66th consecutive grand slam without absence and moved one ahead of Swiss great Roger Federer, with whom he previously shared the best mark.